{"id":307866,"date":"2021-05-03T01:00:37","date_gmt":"2021-05-02T23:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/witnesses-to-a-new-evangelisation\/"},"modified":"2024-05-15T20:42:16","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T18:42:16","slug":"witnesses-to-a-new-evangelisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/witnesses-to-a-new-evangelisation\/","title":{"rendered":"Witnesses to a new evangelisation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thank God you exist!” These are the heartfelt words Chiara Lubich addressed to young people on the occasion of World Youth Day 2,000. The following excerpt from her talk highlights the courage, freedom and hope that characterise young people and the specific contribution this generation can make to bring about “a new world, a better, happier world, one that is more worthy of the human person and more united”.<\/em> \u2026 I know from experience that young people have something special, which represents a great hope for the world. Although you may be immersed, like everyone else, in the evils of our times, you, young people often have hearts and minds with antennas that can detect special wavelengths which others are not able to perceive. Your very age makes you free to entertain noble aspirations such as peace, justice, freedom, and unity, to dream of achievements which would appear utopian to others, to foresee in the third millennium the dawning of a new world, a better, happier world, one that is more worthy of the human person and more united. We thank God that you exist! But what do I want to say to you now? My words are an echo of the words of Jesus which the Pope repeated to young people in 1995: \u201cAs the Father sent me, so I send you\u201d (Jn. 20:21). It\u2019s an invitation to bring the light of truth into today\u2019s society; to take up the challenge of what the Pope called a \u201cnew evangelization\u201d. A \u201cnew evangelization\u201d!! Why is it \u201cnew\u201d? And what does \u201cnew\u201d mean? It has a number of meanings and I will tell you about one of them. You know that nowadays words are no longer enough. Young people, in particular\u2019 don\u2019t want to listen so much to teachers as to witnesses; they want to see facts. Well then, evangelization will be \u201cnew\u201d if those who proclaim the Gospel are first of all genuine, authentic Christians, if they are the first to live what the Gospel teaches, so that people can say of them what was said of the first Christians: \u201cSee how they love one another and how they are ready to die for one another.\u201d Furthermore, evangelization will also be \u201cnew\u201d if they love all other people, without distinction. And it will be \u201cnew\u201d furthermore if these Christians love in practical ways by engaging in works that help give food, clothes, and shelter to those in need. And finally, it will be new \u2013 and this is important \u2013 if they speak and announce the Gospel only after doing all this. Christians of this kind, I assure you, make the life of Jesus attractive to people today, who grow in love for him, and so the kingdom of God spreads beyond all expectations and the Church is strengthened and grows. It grows so much that these Christians can look far into the future, as Jesus did when he called everyone to universal fraternity, praying to the Father: \u201cThat they may all be one\u201d. It might seem a wild dream, but it\u2019s possible because it is the dream of a God. And they believe in it. There are thousands, indeed millions of young people from all nations who are moving towards this very goal. It is to them that John Paul II said: \u201cPeople who look to the future are the ones who make history: the others are just in tow\u2026[1]<\/sup><\/a> Dear young people, today the Pope\u2019s words are addressed to all of you. Don\u2019t disappoint him, don\u2019t disappoint us. I wish you this with all my heart. <\/p>\n

Chiara Lubich<\/em><\/p>\n

  [1]<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 John Paul II, Homily during Mass at the conclusion of the Genfest 1980, in L\u2019Osservatore Romano\u201d May 19-20, p. 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thank God you exist!” These are the heartfelt words Chiara Lubich addressed to young people on the occasion of World Youth Day 2,000. The following excerpt from her talk highlights the courage, freedom and hope that characterise young people and the specific contribution this generation can make to bring about “a new world, a better, happier world, one that is more worthy of the human person and more united”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-307866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}